Re-enactors paddle a bateau Saturday in the Kennebec River at Old Fort Western in Augusta. Staff photo by Keith Edwards

AUGUSTA — Re-enactors at Old Fort Western on Saturday didn’t have any problems re-creating some of the more infamous traits of the bateaux used by Benedict Arnold’s men in their historic but brutal march in 1775 to Quebec from the fort.

Specifically, the lack of both stability and watertightness that plagued the Arnold Expedition’s watercraft as Arnold, years before he turned traitor, led an unsuccessful effort to capture Quebec City from the British by taking 1,100 men from the Continental Army up the Kennebec River in a grueling journey.

To make the journey by water possible, Maj. Reuben Colburn was commissioned to build more than 200 bateaux for Arnold’s army at his Pittston home, in just two weeks. With such little time to work on them, the flat-bottomed boats supplied to help move Arnold’s men and supplies upriver were made of green wood, heavy and leaky. Those bateaux never made it to Quebec City, with many of them falling apart or smashing into rocks.

Hodding Carter and Rob Stevens, who joined Fort Western re-enactors Saturday on the Kennebec River and who, last year, re-created Arnold’s ill-fated but determined march to Quebec City by tracing its route in a bateau hand-made by Stevens, said their boat, too, was a challenge to move upriver.

“We were never stable. We just rolled all the time,” said Stevens, who doesn’t swim. “Five days in a row, we ended up in the water.”

Stevens and Carter, who retraced the Arnold Expedition’s route and, unlike Arnold’s men, made it to Quebec City with their bateau intact, if beaten, after a 40-day voyage fighting river currents and sometimes having to carry their wooden boat for mileslong portages, brought their bateau to the fort Saturday. There it joined the fort’s own bateau, made in 1975 to mark the fort’s 200th anniversary and later donated to the fort. Both the boats were taken down to the nearby Kennebec River for some rowing. The fort’s boat was carried from the fort to the boat landing by Carter, Stevens and four re-enactors, who used logs to carry the heavy craft and launch it into the Kennebec as at least one bemused fisherman watched from the dock.

The haul from the fort to the river paled in comparison to some of the portages made by Arnold’s men, as well as by Carter and Stevens, including a 13 miles at Great Carrying Place.

“That must have been brutal. Physical labor must have been in their DNA. They carried these for miles,” re-enactor Greg Edwards of Bowdoin said of Arnold’s men. “They were paddling for 12 to 14 hours, seven days a week.”

Carter said while soldiers are believed to have carried their bateaux when river travel was not possible, he and Stevens rolled theirs along trails on logs, or rollers, though they were still tested by the arduous hauling, including one haul that reached roughly 800 feet in elevation.

“That was, for them, pretty rough,” Carter said. “Us too.”

Both boats, made of wooden planks without the benefit of modern materials to seal the gaps between them, started slowly leaking, almost as soon as they hit the water.

Re-enactor Stan Novak, who maintains the fort’s two bateaux – the small craft they took out on the river Saturday and a much larger one that stayed onshore at the fort – said it takes roughly 100 hours a year of labor to keep them in usable condition.

Re-enactors with Daniel Savage’s Company are hosting a Revolutionary War encampment this weekend at the fort, commemorating Arnold’s march to Quebec. The public is invited to join the company at 10 a.m. Sunday at Viles Arboretum on Hospital Street, where the company will march to symbolize the march of the soldiers of the Arnold Expedition.

Dozens of visitors toured the fort during Saturday’s events, which included re-enactment of the daily life of militia during the American Revolution.

Waterfall Perry of Massachusetts, touring the fort with her husband, Billy Kean, held a long Queen Anne’s musket up to her shoulder, pointing it toward the river out the window of the two-story wooden gatehouse, after historic interpreter Cody Blackburn explained how soldiers fired their muskets and cannons to deter attacks, primarily from the river.

Here at MaineToday Media we value our readers and are committed to growing our community by encouraging you to add to the discussion.

To ensure conscientious dialogue we have implemented a strict no-bullying policy. To participate, you must follow our Terms of Use. Click here to flag and report a comment that violates our terms of use.